Israel Matzav

Friday, October 30, 2015

And again: 'Palestinian' terrorism in Jerusalem

Once again there was a 'Palestinian' terror attack in Jerusalem today. Contrary to the tweet I'm embedding below, other reports I've seen today (I was not in that part of town today) said that it took place at the Ammunition Hill station, which is the next one heading towards town.

Let's go to the videotape.

BREAKING VIDEO: Moments after Arab terrorist stabs 2 Israelis at the French Hill light rail station in Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/dQk7YdX55O

The 'Palestinian' terrorist was shot dead. The two Jews who were stabbed were not seriously hurt. I must admit that the one in the video you just saw looks familiar, but I did not get a good enough look at him.

If you're wondering how so many 'Palestinian' terrorists are being shot immediately after they attack (bli ayin hara - warding off evil eyes), it's because there are 2-3 police officers or soldiers on every street corner in the center of the city, and on main street corners in the outlying neighborhoods. That's aside from the armed citizens here. So the terrorists don't usually have a lot of time to carry out attacks.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Iberia denies pilot said 'welcome to Palestine'

Passengers on an Iberia flight from Madrid to Tel Aviv on Wednesday reported that the pilot welcomed them to 'Palestine' on landing.

During the flight from Madrid by Spain’s
national carrier, the pilot announced in Spanish that he was preparing
to land “in Tel Aviv, in Palestine.” In English, he subsequently said he
was preparing to land “in Tel Aviv,” and did not repeat the “Palestine”
comment; neither did he say “Israel.”

Lior, a passenger on the flight, told Channel 2 news that he was “a little bit shocked.”

“I don’t understand why he said this,” said
Lior. “We live in the State of Israel and he should have said ‘Israel.’
There was a reason he didn’t say it in English. It was deliberate.”

Another passenger said “everyone noticed” that the pilot didn’t mention Israel by name.

One of the passengers sent a letter to the
company complaining about the pilot’s conduct, saying he and his family
“were very offended,” and adding, “It is inappropriate and does serve
your company well,” Channel 2 reported.

The Spanish news website 20 Minutos reported
on Thursday morning that the Israeli ambassador in Madrid penned a
“tough letter” to the president of Iberia in which he asked him to take
disciplinary measures against the pilot.

Yedioth Ahronoth reported that an Iberia
spokeswoman in Israel apologized on behalf of the airline and said the
pilot who made the announcement would not be flying the route to Israel
until the matter was fully investigated by the airline.

After speaking with “members of both cockpit and cabin crews and with
other passengers on board” to clarify the situation, Iberia has
determined “the word ‘Palestine’ was not used in the announcement,”
according to a statement posted on the airline’s website.

“The captain adhered to the standard format, in which only the
airports of origin and destination are named, and not countries,
regions, or territories,” Iberia said.

The announcement was first made in Spanish and then in English. The
airline claims the captain said, “Dear passengers, we’re now descending
to land at our destination, Tel Aviv.”

However, passengers may have been confused, according to Iberia.

“Both the airline and the crew regret the misunderstanding, which
could have been caused by the similar sound of the Spanish word
‘destino,’ meaning ‘destination’, with ‘Palestina.’ No such confusion
was caused by the message in English, passengers said.”

If he had said 'Israel' or 'Palestine,' it would have been a breach of protocol. I fly a lot, and I don't recall ever hearing an airline pilot announce the name of the country in whose airport we were landing.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Israel's not on the list

Business Insider reports that the World Bank has ranked the 18 countries that are the best in the world for starting and running a business. The top two and four of the top five are from the Far East - Singapore and New Zealand are 1 and 2, while South Korea and Hong Kong are 4 and 5. Denmark is 3, the UK is 6 and the US is 7. Israel? Nowhere to be found. Why isn't Start-Up Nation on the list? Very simple:

We have one of the latest Tax Freedom Days in the world (and 2013 was a good year - I've seen it into August in this country. And no, it's not just the Defense budget).

We have a business bureaucracy that's a mine field designed to pay coupons to certain entrenched elites. For example, sitting in Israel, it is significantly faster and cheaper to set up a corporation in Delaware or Nevada than it is in Israel - I do it often.

Value added tax of 17% (recently cut from 18%) makes goods and services much more expensive.

High real estate costs as a result of government ownership of nearly all the land in the country make housing costs sky high, especially in our major cities. Zoning rules that attempt to make all residences 'equal' mean that you cannot do what you wish with your private property.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Video: Harry Potter and the Threats to Israel

This is a short video depicting the lethal actions of the terrorist
organization Hamas against Israel, the bias of world leaders and the
media in response to Israel’s self-defense, and the threat posed by the
Iran deal to Israel and the world.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

On which Kibbutz was Bernie Sanders a volunteer?

Bernie Sanders apparently volunteered on an Israeli Kibbutz (collective) for a few months some 50+ years ago. But no one can remember on which one, so now they are trying to use social media to find out. Caption read: "Remember him from the dining hall?"

In the picture, Bernie is wearing the famous kova tembel (dunce cap) that was popular in Kibbutzim way back when.

Hamas behind Beersheva bus terminal attack?

Investigators working the case found that before the attack – during
which Muhand al-Uqbi, a 21-year-old native of Hura, shot and killed IDF
soldier Omri Levi and wounded several other Israelis – al-Uqbi had been
in contact with Hamas for a long period of time before the attack and
that on his phone he had pictures of Hamas members, weapons, and other
materials.

That information came to light in a statement put out
by the Negev police on Sunday, as they presented a pre-indictment motion
against al-Uqbi’s brother, who will be charged with failing to prevent a
crime, after investigators determined that he knew his brother had
acquired a pistol and was “going through a process of radicalization due
to the events on the Temple Mount and did not report it.”

...

According to police, last Sunday at 7:24 pm, al-Uqbi – armed with a
handgun - slipped into the bus station by way of an entryway next to the
McDonald’s at the station. Moments later Levi passed through the same
entrance and al-Uqbi began to follow him, police said, in order to kill
him and steal his assault rifle.

Police said al-Uqbi then saw
Levi head towards a bathroom at the station and he followed the soldier
into the bathroom, pulled out his pistol, shot him dead at point blank
range and stole his rifle.

After stealing the rifle, al-Uqbi
opened fire at a group of police officers who heard the gunshot and were
on their way to the bathroom. He then fled towards the dumpsters behind
the station, where he was shot by YASSAM special patrol officers.

Next to his body a knife was found, but it was not used in the attack, police said.

Bottom line: Al-Uqbi was in touch with Hamas for months and one can only assume that he received logistical support and maybe weapons from them. Lest anyone still think these are random attacks.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Would Rabin have stopped the 'peace process'?

Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.

Twenty years ago tonight was one of those moments that you always remember where you were when you heard about it. Twenty years ago tonight, then-Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin was assassinated at the end of a 'peace rally' in Tel Aviv. (For the record, I was in our apartment on the computer and Mrs. Carl had gone with a couple of the kids to the mall - I think I had the two then-youngest kids at home).

Oslo was a disaster from the outset, arguably the worst
self-inflicted wound in Israel’s history. By 1995, it was widely
regarded as a failure by Israelis; polls showed public approval of Rabin
and his Labor Party sinking to record lows.
Oslo’s architects had promised that empowering Yasser Arafat and the
Palestine Liberation Organization with their own quasi-state in Gaza and
the West Bank was the best way to suppress terror attacks and improve
Israel’s security. Rabin’s government took the gamble, but the “peace
process” didn’t deliver peace. It delivered bus bombings and suicide
attacks.

More Israelis were killed by Palestinian terrorists in the 24
months following the famous handshake on the White House lawn than in
any similar period in Israel’s history.
In public, Rabin professed
to be undaunted, repeatedly insisting that the engagement with Arafat
must proceed: “We have to fight terror as if there were no peace talks,
and we have to pursue peace as if there were no terror.”

But privately, Rabin was having grave doubts.

According to Efraim Inbar, head of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University and the author of “Rabin and Israel’s National Security,”
Rabin was no starry-eyed peacenik. He was a pragmatic leader for whom
peace, in and of itself, was never a core value. The Oslo concessions
could be justified only to the extent that they left Israel more secure.
As it became apparent that instead of land for peace, Israel had
exchanged land for terror, incitement, and hatred, Inbar said Wednesday in a lecture at Boston University, there is good reason to believe he would have pulled the plug.

Others have said the same thing. Dalia Rabin, the prime minister’s daughter (and a former deputy defense minister), recalled in 2010
that she had been told by many of her father’s confidants “that on the
eve of the murder he considered stopping the Oslo process because of the
terror that was running rampant in the streets, and because he felt
that Yasser Arafat was not delivering on his promises.” And Moshe
Ya’alon, who in 1995 was Israel’s chief of military intelligence, was
told by Rabin that he intended to “set things straight” with Oslo after
the 1996 election, since Arafat’s commitments were plainly worthless.

Would
he have done so? Of course we cannot know for sure, but as Inbar notes,
Rabin did believe that Oslo was reversible. When critics expressed
alarm at an agreement committing Israel to arm a Palestinian police
force, he replied that there was nothing to fear.
“There is no danger that these guns will be used against us,” Rabin
said. “The purpose of this ammunition for the Palestinian police is to .
. . fight against Hamas. They won’t dream of using it against us, since
they know very well that if they use these guns against us once, at
that moment the Oslo Accord will be annulled.”

But he waited too long.

Rabin was never a willing participant in Oslo. Shimon Peres sent Yossi Beilin, Ron Pundak and Uri Savir to Oslo to negotiate with the PLO behind Rabin's back. Presented with the fait accomplis, Rabin went along. I think he would have dropped it in a minute.

More than 150 British artists, including Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, have signed a public letter opposing boycott campaigns against Israel.

The group, which also includes Booker Prize-winning author Hilary
Mantel and noted historian and BBC presenter Simon Schama, wrote an op-ed in The Guardian
criticizing an earlier effort by British artists to refuse to perform
in Israel in protest of the country’s treatment of Palestinians.
“Cultural boycotts singling out Israel are divisive and discriminatory
and will not further peace,” the letter said.

The letter announced the creation of Culture for Coexistence, a group
that “will be seeking to inform and encourage dialogue about Israel and
the Palestinians in the wider cultural and creative community. While we
may not all share the same views on the policies of the Israeli
government, we all share a desire for peaceful coexistence.”

Here's the best part:

Culture for Coexistence wants to be “a tiny part of the jigsaw that can
work towards breaking down barriers,” Loraine da Costa, the chair of the
group, told The Guardian in an interview. The
group also hopes to “take people to Israel and the Palestinian
territories to have a dialogue with cultural counterparts there.”

Video: Eyewitness describes Thursday's terror attack in Beit Shemesh

Here's an interview in English with someone who was an eyewitness to Thursday's terror attack in Beit Shemesh. Incredibly, the two terrorists wandered around the area unmolested for about an hour.

Let's go to the videotape.

A Beit Shemesh resident recounts this mornings terrorists attack where he saw two suspicious people waiting by his local bus stop, and followed them until the police came. It's a miracle that more people were not killed. Credit: Arutz Sheva
Posted by StandWithUs on Thursday, October 22, 2015

Russia - not Israel - is touting strategic cooperation

It is Russia - and not Israel - that has gone public about the strategic coordination between the two countries. The Israelis, while realistic about the decline in American activity in the region due to the Obama administration's tendency toward isolationism and Islamophilic behavior, nevertheless do not wish to stick it in the United States' face, probably in the hope that some day a different administration will take charge. The Russians, on the other hand, have no reason to hedge their bets and are proud that Israel is cooperating with their camp.

"We don't interfere with
them and they don't interfere with us," Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon
said in a radio interview, tersely summing up Israel's accommodation
with Russia.
Another reason Israel is holding back could be because it does
not know the full extent of Russia's plans for Syria or what effect they
could have on Assad's allies – Iran and the Lebanese guerrilla group
Hezbollah.
A de-facto axis between Moscow and Israel's two most powerful
regional enemies could seem an unsettling scenario for Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu's government, but it might also be seen as providing a
moderating influence.
"The new order in the Middle East is loose coalitions for
specific purposes, so a Russian partnership with Iran and Hezbollah to
save Assad is not necessarily bad for us," a Netanyahu confidant told
Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Russian President Vladimir Putin "is not looking to mess with
Israel, and it's unlikely he would look kindly on Iran or Hezbollah
messing with Israel now, either," the confidant said.
The assurance has been echoed by Russia, which hosted Netanyahu for Syria "deconfliction" talks on Sept. 21.
It took until this week for the United States, whose forces have long
been in sync with Israel on Syria, to agree on similar coordination
with Russia.

...

Shein said Russia was
familiar with the reasoning behind past Israeli air strikes in Syria,
including against alleged arms transfers by Iran or Assad's army to
Hezbollah, and "fully aware of Israel's strategic importance in the
Middle East."

But he said Syria's neighbors and overall regional stability were
threatened by the conflict, suggesting Israeli security might be best
served by an Assad victory.

Israel called for Assad to be ousted after the civil war began but
the Netanyahu government has recently preferred neutral rhetoric even
though Western powers continue to demand an eventual change of
leadership in Syria.

...

Moscow, meanwhile, has made no secret of seeing vindication for its Syria strategy in the Netanyahu government's posture.

"Israel’s prudence from the outbreak of the conflict in Syria has
become apparent in the fact that Israel did not consider the overthrow
of President Assad as an indispensable condition to avoid foreign
intervention and impediment for the beginning of a national
reconciliation," Shein said.

He linked this to what he described as Israel's "wisdom" in not
taking sides when Russia seized the Crimea region from Ukraine last year
following the removal of a Ukrainian president who was sympathetic to
Moscow.

"I hope it reflects concern for the development of Russian-Israeli
relations in a true, friendly and cooperative manner," Shein said.

Israeli officials have spoken respectfully, but not lavishly, about their evolving relationship with Russia.

A diplomatic dividend such as Russian recognition of Israel's
ownership of the Golan Heights is nowhere on the horizon, and Moscow's
growing relationship with Iran worries the Netanyahu government.

Jibril Rajoub lauds 'heroic' 'Palestinian' terrorists

Fatah Central Committee Deputy Secretary Jibril Rajoub recently lauded
the Palestinian attackers, saying: "These are individual acts of
heroism, of which I am proud." In the interview, which aired on the
official TV channel of the Palestinian Authority on October 17, 2015,
Rajoub further said: "We refuse to pay the bill for the Holocaust. What
is being done to us is exactly the same as what was done to the Jews in
Europe."

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Report: Israeli satellites spying on Russian support for Assad

Images captured earlier this month from the Eros-B, a dual-use
imaging satellite owned and operated by ImageSat International, reveal
high operational tempo at Latakia International Airport, where Moscow
has based some 12 Su-25 fighters, a similar amount of Su-24 bombers, 16
Mi-35 attack helicopters and a small amount of Su-30 and Su-34 aircraft.

Outsized
Antonov 124 and Ilyushin Il-76 cargo aircraft are seen offloading
additional cargo, all of which is protected by at least one SAM-22
surface-to-air missile system.
In an image dated Oct. 10, support
vehicles and open cockpit canopies indicate high levels of alert while
another image taken on the same day shows a foursome of Su-30 attack
fighters in so-called fast launch positions at the end of the runway.

Such
imagery taken by the relatively low end of Israel’s satellite force
represents a mere snapshot of the Jewish state’s persistent ability to
monitor areas of interest throughout Syria and beyond.

With more
than a handful of satellites orbiting the Earth at 90-minute intervals,
Israel has multiple opportunities every day to revisit suspected sites.

...

IDF officers and their Russian counterparts plan to hold their second
round of so-called deconfliction talks in Moscow later next month, with
an eye toward establishing a mechanism to prevent unintended
consequences in the event that Russian and Israeli aircraft are flying
in the same airspace.

A deal that will live in infamy

Unlike the 'democratic' United States, Iran allowed its parliament to debate and pass the

Joint Comprehensive Program of Action, or JCPOA. The Iranian Majlis took up the JCPOA as a treaty (something that the Obama-Kerry junta would not allow Congress to do), and passed instead a 1000-page bill, which differs markedly from the JCPOA, but which has not yet been fully translated into English.

The Iranian version shows that Iran has not agreed to the same deal to which the United States Senate thought it was agreeing (the House voted the JCPOA down, but a vote in the Senate was blocked by the Democrats). The Iranian version is so different that it is difficult not to notice.

The Iranian parliamentary bill that “approved” the JCPOA reportedly
is 1,000 pages long and has not yet been fully translated into English.
According to Amir Taheri, an Iranian-born veteran Western journalist,
the bill contains these provisions:

The elimination of Israel’s nuclear arsenal.

Forbids the inspection of any military site and the interviewing of any
officers.

Says the redesign of the Arak heavy-water reactor and its conversion to
run on enriched uranium “are conditional to separate deals.” This refers
to a JCPOA provision to alter the design and fueling of the Arak
reactor so it produces less plutonium. This provision is significant
because it implies either that other agreements need to be negotiated to
carry out this part of the JCPOA or that undisclosed side deals
concerning the Arak reactor exist.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) assessed in an October
13, 2015 report that the Iranian parliament ratified “a nonexistent
document,” not the JCPOA, because it called for sanctions against Iran
to be cancelled and not to be reimposed. By contrast, the nuclear deal
calls for sanctions to be suspended and to snap back in the event of
Iranian noncompliance.

MEMRI also reported text in the Iranian parliament bill calling on
the government to handle the rapid expansion of the country’s centrifuge
program so that within two years, Iran’s enriched-uranium output will
reach 190,000 SWUs (separate work units). This would equal about 25 to
28 times the output of the 9,000 centrifuges Iran currently is operating
and contradicts Tehran’s JCPOA commitment to only operate 5,060
centrifuges for 10 years.

According to press reports, Supreme Leader Khamenei issued a letter on
October 21 “endorsing” the JCPOA that actually appears to endorse the
Iranian parliament’s bill. In the letter, Khamenei demanded that the
U.S. and the EU agree in writing that sanctions “are completely
canceled” when Iran meets its obligations under the agreement. Khamenei
also complained about “ambiguities” in the JCPOA and said any new
sanctions against Iran would be a violation of the agreement.

...

So with Obama officials claiming this week that the JCPOA’s
Adoption Day indicated progress and the willingness of all parties to
implement the agreement, the truth is that Iran is already violating it
and has an entirely different view of the deal from what Obama’s
officials have claimed. I am sure Obama’s officials are aware of this,
but they are so desperate for the JCPOA to succeed that they are
ignoring these violations and finding ways to explain them away,
including by contradicting earlier claims that missile sanctions and the
PMD issue were part of the nuclear deal.

The amended version of the JCPOA passed by the Iranian parliament
is a crucial part of this puzzle. At least one organization in
Washington is working to translate this document. Congress must demand
the U.S. Intelligence Community translate it ASAP and post online so
Congress can consider further action on the nuclear deal.

Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi famously said in March 2010 that “we
have to pass the [health care] bill so that you can find out what’s in
it. . . . ” This comment is ironic given how Congress is now learning
what was really agreed to in the JCPOA after it survived a congressional
review last month as well as a January 2014 comment by National
Security staffer Ben Rhodes that the Obama administration viewed the
Iran deal as its second term Obamacare.

The deceptions used to pass Obamacare did severe damage to America’s
health-care system and caused costs to skyrocket. The deceptions used to
sell the nuclear deal with Iran may do far more damage to American
interests by providing cover that Iran likely will use to try to become a
regional hegemon while continuing its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Jeb Bush campaign video blasts Obama for not supporting Israel

Glad to see Jeb Bush out front on Israel - I didn't expect him to make us a centerpiece of his campaign.

In this campaign ad, Bush blasts Obama and Kerry for not supporting Israel (curiously, on the same day that a Rasmussen poll finds that most Americans believe that the US should stay out of the current dispute between Israel and the 'Palestinians').

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Road rage, 'Palestinian' style

Unfortunately, this is not very funny. In another setting, this might be called a road rage incident, or might be an attempt to steal the car. Not in this country. It's an attempt to murder a group of IDF soldiers.

Update: Pal. threw rocks at army car near Bethlehem. Soldiers exited car after it was hit. Pal. ran them over. 5 soldiers injured

Did the soldiers exit with their weapons, and if so, why didn't they use them? Let me guess: They weren't allowed to under the open fire rules. If yes, the open fire rules need to be changed. This is the second time that's happened in two days (the subject of that link was denied a weapons permit because...).

40 years ago today....

I remember this like it was yesterday. World Series Game 6 Red Sox v. Reds in Boston, 6-6 in the bottom of the 12th inning, Carlton Fisk at the plate:

Let's go to the videotape.

Unfortunately, they lost the next night (and a fellow Bostonian on my dormitory floor threw the handle of a chair through a closed window in disgust).

It took another 29 years for the Red Sox to break the curse in 2004 (I was at Game 7 when they lost to the Mets in New York in 1986). Eleven years ago yesterday, the Red Sox finished coming back from an 0-3 deficit against the Hated Yankees to win the ALCS and move on to the World Series against the Cardinals, which they won.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

US Secretary of State John Kerry has admitted that 'Palestinian' claims of a threat to the al-Aqsa mosque, which are fueling the current violence, are a lie.

After more than a week of studied neutrality about the surge of terrorism against Israel, Secretary of State John Kerry finally said something useful
to the cause of restoring calm. Though he and other administration
officials have at times blamed the Israelis for provoking the spate of
bloody terror attacks by building homes or by shooting terrorists, Kerry
got to the core of the problem when he noted that the alleged threats
to the al-Aqsa mosque are not real. By noting that Israel was opposed to
changing the status quo on the Temple Mount, Kerry implicitly backed
the Netanyahu government’s assertion that the violence was the result of
incitement by Palestinian leaders who have circulated that false
charge.

But what Kerry won't do is to take the next step and admit that the 'Palestinians' are trying to change the status quo:

But the notion that what Palestinians want on the Temple Mount or
anywhere else is the status quo is a misnomer. As has been the case with
each stage of fighting during the recent history of the region, both
the Palestinians and much of the American foreign policy establishment
hopes the growing pile of corpses will serve to increase the pressure on
Israel to give up more territory.

55-year-old Avraham Asher Hasno HY"D (May God Avenge his blood) of Kiryat Arba in Judea got out of his car today to fight 'Palestinian' terrorists who were throwing rocks at Israeli cars. Hasno was deliberately run down by a 'Palestinian' truck (see pictures above - hopefully police and the IDF will at least catch the truck driver). Then the 'Palestinians' celebrated Hasno's death.

Arab terrorists threw rocks at several cars at Al
Fawar junction, southwest of Hevron, prompting Hasno to get out of his
car. At that point an Arab driver ran him over in a truck before fleeing
the scene.

The paramedic who treated Hasno at the scene revealed shortly
after returning from the incident that he had witnessed a
blood-chilling sight while performing resuscitation attempts for the
victim, which eventually failed as he died of his wounds.

Around the site where he was trying to save Hasno's life, the shocked
paramedic said dozens of Arabs were standing around, and they clapped,
celebrated and cheered as the victim lay critically wounded and dying on
the pavement.

The Arabs celebrated with "cruelty that is hard to describe among human beings."
Hasno had gotten out of his car to confront the Arab terrorists
according to Hevron activist Baruch Marzel, who revealed that the
authorities refused Hasno's request to carry a gun.

The blood-curdling celebration at the sight of a dying man brings to
mind the callous response Arab passersby and shopkeepers showed Adele Bennett, who earlier this month ran for help while seriously wounded from a stabbing attack in Jerusalem's Old City.

Bennett's husband Aharon as well as Rabbi Nehemia Lavi were murdered
in the attack, and her two-year-old child was lightly wounded. And yet
Arab residents laughed and cheered as she ran for help, mocking and
hitting her. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has called to close the stores of the Arab shopkeepers who took part.

UNESCO chief blasts 'Palestinian' attempt to have Western Wall declared a Muslim holy site

As the 'Palestinians' decry Israel for supposed 'changes to the status quo' on the Temple Mount, they are attempting to create one of their own by orchestrating a UNESCO vote (you will recall that they are members of UNESCO - that's why the US hasn't paid dues in four years) declaring the Western Wall (pictured) to be an Islamic holy site. UNESCO director general Irina Bukova is not pleased, and blasted her own board today for bringing the matter to a vote.

“We all have responsibility to UNESCO’s mandate, to take decisions that
promote dialogue, tolerance and peace,” said Bokova. “This is especially
important for young people, who should be nurtured and educated for
peace.”

She issued her statement on Tuesday, in advance of
Wednesday’s highly publicized vote by UNESCO’s Executive Board in Paris
on a draft resolution, which “affirms that the Buraq Plaza [the Western
Wall] is an integral part of al-Aksa Mosque/al-Haram al-Sharif.”

A
statement put out by her office said that Bokova “appeals to the UNESCO
Executive Board to take decisions that do not further inflame tensions
on the ground and that encourage respect for the sanctity of the Holy
Sites.”

Her office added that the discussion “could be seen to
alter the status of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls, inscribed
on UNESCO’s World Heritage list, and that could further incite
tensions.”

The “protection of culture heritage should not be taken hostage, as this undermines UNESCO’s mandate and efforts,” Bokova said.

She
has consulted with nations on the 58 member board to encourage them to
pursue constructive dialogue that promotes tolerance and mutual respect
such as outlined in the mandate of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Jerusalem is a city that is
holy for Jews, Christians and Muslim and it should be a place of
dialogue for all three faiths, she said.

Bokova called on “all
parties to ensure that cultural heritage, including religious, is
preserved and accessible to all and to resume dialogue in the spirit of
mutual understanding.”

The six-page draft resolution – submitted
by Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Kuwait, and the United Arab
Emirates on behalf of the Palestinian Authority broadly condemns Israeli
actions in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza.

At no point does
the resolution mention the Jewish historical connection to Jerusalem,
which dates back to biblical times. Nor does it reference the Temple
Mount or the Western Wall, which was part of the retaining wall King
Herod built for the Temple Mount more than 2,000 years ago. It also
relies solely on Arabic names for the holy sites on and around the
Temple Mount.

Israeli Ambassador to UNESCO Carmel Shama Hacohen
called the resolution “a total Islamization” of a site that is revered
by both Jews and Muslims.

Funny that we have not heard equally vehement opposition to this resolution from US President Hussein Obama, Secretary of State Kerry, UN Ambassador Power or National Security Council Chief Rice.

I wonder why the self-proclaimed 'most pro-Israel administration evah' has not come out against this. /sarc

Monday, October 19, 2015

White House: President won't meet with Clock Kid

Remember Ahmed Mohamed, the boy who was suspended for bringing a clocksuspected bomb to school, and who was invited to meet with President Hussein Obama?

Over the weekend, young Ahmed met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is under indictment for genocide by the International Criminal Court. Now, President Obama will not risk his political future by meeting with Ahmad.

Josh Earnest: Obama likely won’t meet with Ahmed Mohamed at White House Astronomy Night. He won’t be bringing the clock.

Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday said the violent attacks
taking place by Palestinians against Jewish people in Israel are "random
acts of violence."

"We continue to urge everybody to exercise restraint and restrain
from any kind of self-help in terms of the violence, and Israel has
every right in the world to protect its citizens, as it has been, from
random acts of violence," Kerry said in Madrid, Spain after meeting with
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo.

Kerry's remark is likely to lead to complaints that the Obama
administration is downplaying what Israel says is a premeditated plan to
murder Jews in Israel. Palestinian religious leaders have called for
these attacks, and Israel has said its counterattacks have been
defensive in nature.

Critics of the Obama administration have also said officials are
treating the violence as equivalent, by calling on "both sides" to help
reduce tensions.

The acts of violence are surely not random, and both sides definitely do not share the blame equally for them. The acts of violence are clearly being perpetrated almost exclusively by 'Palestinians.'

ICYMI Netanyahu asking BBC reporter if she lives on the same planet

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas to hold talks to calm the recent surge of violence. Asked
by the BBC's Lyse Doucet whether he was prepared to return to the
negotiating table, he angrily questioned whether she was "living on the
same planet".

A watchdog group, UN Watch, reports that staffers at a major United
Nations agency with a long history of encouraging Palestinian terrorism,
the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), is inciting the latest spate of attacks in Israel. From the UN Watch press release:

UN staffers are using the imprimatur of their official positions to incite Palestinian stabbing and shooting attacks against Israeli Jews, with one UN-identified employee calling on Facebook to “stab Zionist dogs,” according to a new report issued today by UN Watch, the Geneva-based non-governmental organization that is accredited by the United Nations with the mandate to monitor the world body’s compliance with its charter.

“The UN and top funders of UNRWA such as the United States government must act immediately to terminate employees who are inciting murderous anti-Semitism and fueling the deadly pandemic of Palestinian attacks against Israeli Jews that have claimed innocent men, women and children, aged 13 to 78,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.

“Despite UNRWA’s promise, in the wake of our previous report, to take action and dismiss UNRWA perpetrators of incitement, there has been no accountability whatsoever,” said Neuer. “On the contrary, UNRWA’s main response has been to try and intimidate UN Watch.”…

Although we are over $18 trillion in debt (officially, with the unofficial total many times higher), the U.S. government not only redistributes $400 million a year to support the UNRWA’s promotion of terrorism; our government also redistributes a staggering $5 billion per annum to Palestinians: the people carrying out the yet another intifada, the people who elected Hamas – a formally designated terrorist organization under American law – to govern Gaza, and the people whose U.S.-supported Palestinian Authority has voluntarily formed a unity government with Hamas.

I can think of one place where the next President of the United States can look to cut the budget. But will s/he?

Labour's Jeremy Corbyn's campaign was financed by Hamas

Two of the three largest donors to British Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn's campaign are connected to Hamas according to a report in London's Daily Telegraph.

The Labour leader made an inaccurate declaration to Parliamentary authorities about the payment which obscured the donor’s true identity.

Ibrahim Hamami, a vitriolic opponent of the Oslo peace accords and a
supporter of the current wave of stabbings of Jews in Israel, gave
£2,000 to Mr Corbyn in August, one of only three main individual donors
to his campaign. Two of the three have now been exposed as supporters of
terror.

Mr Corbyn listed the
donation in the Commons register of members’ interests as being from “Dr
Ibrahim Hamam”, but Dr Hamami confirmed to the Telegraph on Saturday
that he was the donor.

Last week on his Facebook page, Dr Hamami praised the recent
violence, which has seen seven Israelis killed and about 50 wounded in
stabbings, shootings or attacks with cars over the last two weeks in
what some are dubbing the “third intifada.”

He described the attacks as acts of “dignity, freedom and honour".

Dr Hamami helped organise the UK visit of the notorious extremist Raed
Saleh, who has described Jews as “bacteria” and “monkeys” and promoted
the blood libel, saying they use the blood of gentile children to bake
their bread.

He acted as Saleh’s spokesman and visited him in jail after he was detained by UK immigration authorities.

Saleh was defended by Mr Corbyn, who called him “a very honoured
citizen who represents his people extremely well” and said he “looked
forward to giving you tea on the [House of Commons] terrace”.

Dr
Hamami is well known to Mr Corbyn, who has described Hamas operatives
as “friends” and has at least twice shared public platforms with him.

One of the events, on 24 February 2013, was organised by Interpal, a a
British charity banned by the US government as “part of the funding
network of Hamas” and as a terrorist organisation in its own right.

...

A second individual donor to Mr Corbyn’s leadership campaign has also been exposed as a supporter of Palestinian terror.

Ted Honderich, a retired professor at University College, London, who
gave £5,000, wrote in a newspaper in 2011 that Palestinians “have a
moral right to their terrorism within historic Palestine against
neo-Zionism”.

If Corbyn ever becomes Prime Minister of England, will he be welcomed in other countries? Here's betting that so long as Hussein Obama remains in office, Corbyn will be a welcome guest at the White House.

Jeffrey Goldberg gets it... and most Israelis do too

This past week has been a surprising eye-opener for some people. Take, for instance, the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg.

When violence against Jews occurs
inside Israel, or on the West Bank, a consensus tends to be reached
quickly by outside analysts and political leaders, one that holds that
such violence represents the inevitable consequence of Israel’s
occupation and settlement of Palestinian territory. John Kerry, the U.S.
secretary of state, said in an appearance
earlier this week at Harvard that, “What’s happening is that unless we
get going, a two-state solution could conceivably be stolen from
everybody. And there’s been a massive increase in settlements over the
course of the last years.” He went on to say, “Now you have this
violence because there’s a frustration that is growing, and a
frustration among Israelis who don’t see any movement.”

(On Friday morning, speaking with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, Kerry revised and extended his comments, criticizing Abbas—in a passive way — for the violence: “There's no excuse for the violence. ... And
the Palestinians need to understand, and President Abbas has been
committed to nonviolence. He needs to be condemning this, loudly and
clearly. And he needs to not engage in some of the incitement that his
voice has sometimes been heard to encourage.”)

It is sometimes difficult for policymakers such as Kerry, who has
devoted so much time and energy to the search for a solution to the
Israeli-Arab impasse, to acknowledge the power of a particular
Palestinian narrative, one that obviates the possibility of a solution
that allows Jews national and religious equality. Writing in Haaretz,
the left-center political scientist Shlomo Avineri describes an
important disconnect that often goes unnoticed, even in times like
these: Many Palestinians believe that “this is not a conflict between
two national movements but a conflict between one national movement (the
Palestinian) and a colonial and imperialistic entity (Israel).” He goes
on to write, “According to this view, Israel will end like all colonial
phenomena—it will perish and disappear. Moreover, according to the
Palestinian view, the Jews are not a nation but a religious community,
and as such not entitled to national self-determination which is, after
all, a universal imperative.”

Avineri, like most sensible
analysts, understands the many and variegated reasons for the continued
failure of the peace process:

[M]utual distrust between the two populations, internal pressures
from the rejectionists on both sides, Yasser Arafat’s repeated
deceptions, the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the electoral
victories of Likud in Israeli elections, Palestinian terrorism,
continuing Israeli settlement activities in the territories, the bloody
rift between Fatah and Hamas, American presidents who did too little
(George W. Bush) or too much and in a wrong way (Barack Obama), the
political weakness of Mahmoud Abbas, governments headed by Netanyahu
that did everything possible to undermine effective negotiations. All
this is true, and everyone picks and chooses what fits their views and
interests—but beyond all these lies a fundamental difference in the
terms in which each side views the conflict, a difference many tend or
choose to overlook.

The violence of the past two weeks, encouraged by
purveyors of rumors who now have both Israeli and Palestinian blood on
their hands, is rooted not in Israeli settlement policy, but in a
worldview that dismisses the national and religious rights of Jews.
There will not be peace between Israelis and Palestinians so long as
parties on both sides of the conflict continue to deny the national and
religious rights of the other.

What Israelis are coming to understand by virtue of the fact that the
attackers are not Palestinians living in refugee camps but Israeli Arabs
— who have access to Israeli health care, Israeli education, Israel's
free press and right of assembly, protection for gays and lesbians and
much more — is that this latest round of violence is simply the newest
battle in the War of Independence that Israel has been fighting for 68
years now.

The war began even before Israel was a state — Arabs attacked Israel
not when David Ben-Gurion declared independence on May 14, 1948, but
when the United Nations General Assembly voted — on November 29, 1947 —
to create a Jewish state. When formal independence followed some six
months later, the attacking Arab militias were replaced by standing
armies of five Arab nations — Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and even
Iraq (which joined the fray even though it did not share a border with
Israel).

Over the years, the enemies have shifted (Israel signed peace treaties
with Egypt and Jordan, but now there are the Palestinians and Iran is
both pursuing a weapon of mass destruction and declaring that Israel
must be destroyed) and the methods have changed (standing Arab armies
have been replaced by terrorism at home and an international campaign to
delegitimize Israel in the UN and beyond). But the basic goal of
Israel's enemies remains the destruction of the Jewish state.

Increasingly, Israelis (who, polls show, overwhelmingly would like to
get out of the West Bank and live peacefully alongside a Palestinian
State that would recognize Israel) fear that while for us this is a
conflict that can be settled by adjusting borders and guaranteeing
security for both sides, for our enemies this is an all-or-nothing
battle in which the only end would be for Israel to disappear.

And Gordis, who is about as moderate as American immigrants come, writes that the current round of violence might mean the end of any pretense of a 'peace process.'

Israeli Jews have taken note — and the consequences are likely to be
longstanding.

While Israelis are feeling vulnerable, they are also
feeling abandoned. When Secretary of State John Kerry said that he would
not "point fingers from afar" at who was responsible for the violence,
and called the latest attacks part of a "revolving cycle that damages
the future for everybody," he convinced Israelis once again that the
present American administration has abandoned any ability to distinguish
right from wrong, just from unjust, wise from destructive. America is
hopelessly irrelevant in the Middle East, which means that Israel is
sadly very alone.

When Americans fret in the months and years to come that the peace
process is stuck, Israelis hope that they will remember that when the
violence broke out again, the world's newspapers ignored it. When Abbas
said Israel had murdered a 13-year-old Palestinian attacked and the
Israeli press then published a photo showing the boy sitting in an
Israeli hospital bed, Abbas did not retract and the world ignored his
mendacity.

When the American secretary of state was asked to comment on why the
new round of violence erupted, he refused to mention Abbas and said he
would not point fingers. When Palestinians incited, Israeli Arabs (20%
of Israel's population) who picked up knives convinced many Israelis
that they were enemies, not fellow citizens.

Israelis hope that people will remember all that, but we also know better.

...

Why? Is it because Israelis do not want peace? Is it because we do not
understand that our future would be better if Palestinians could have a
democratic, functioning state? Is it because we're oblivious to their
legitimate complaints?

No. It's simply that we know, with no doubt, that for our enemies, this
is a conflict not about borders but about our very right to be here. We
know that, overwhelmingly, the Arab world is still committed to driving
us out of this land. So we'll stay, and tough it out — whatever the
world thinks of the steps we have to take — for as long as it takes. For
as Golda Meir put it decades ago with her characteristic wit, "Israelis
have a secret weapon — we have nowhere else to go."

Indeed, many (if not most) of us have no place else to go. And even if we did, most of us are not going to leave.

After Jimmy Carter, there was Ronald Reagan

The conceit of American foreign policy for the last seven years has
been the notion that Obama’s faith in outreach to Islamists, his
dedication to multilateral diplomacy, and his aversion to conflict would
transform America’s image in the world and leave it a better place. But
that has turned out to be only partially true. Obama may claim that
Iran or Russia are acting out of weakness, and that ISIS is merely the
JV of terrorism, but the rest of the world knows better. Though George
W. Bush made some big mistakes (though he kept America safe in the years
after 9/11) and was reviled in some quarters, his America was not
thought of as weak. Unfortunately, the catastrophe in Syria and Iraq is
just the first indication of what happens when America is not only
perceived as a paper tiger but actually acts out of weakness. We can
only guess at what new horrors will arise as that situation unravels but
the rise of a newly strengthened post-nuclear deal Iran will only
worsen the situation for American allies in the coming years.

Nor can we leave the Israel-Palestinian conflict out of the
discussion of his legacy. The president was sure that the resolution of
that century-old war could only be achieved by creating more daylight
between the United States and Israel and he was unceasing in his efforts
to create more of it. But far from encouraging the Palestinians to
negotiate a two-state solution or pushing the Israelis to take new risks
for peace, all he accomplished there was to encourage the Palestinian
leadership to be even more resolute in their refusal to make peace since
they believed America no longer had the back of the Jewish state.
Indeed, in just the last week, the administration’s reflexive
even-handed approach has caused it to equate the fate of Israeli victims
of terror with that of slain terrorists. Can it be any surprise that
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has become the leading
inciter of terror while enjoying the enthusiastic support from Obama as a
champion of peace. The president inherited a stalemated peace process.
But on his watch, he did what many thought was impossible in 2008 since
the conflict has actually worsened and peace is even more unlikely that
it was then.

The true Obama legacy abroad has nothing to do with the peace that he
craved to make between Israelis and Palestinians or in the wars that he
believed himself to be ending. The aftermath of his presidency will be
one in which American power and prestige fall to its lowest point since
Jimmy Carter. U.S. allies are isolated and weakened while its foes such
as Iran and Russia are embarked on the sort of adventurism not seen
since the 1970s. But the president is right about one thing. He has
changed the world. Just not in the way he or his adoring fans ever
dreamed it would happen.

Ambassador Shapiro puts distance between himself and Kerry

US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro has put distance between himself and his boss - Secretary of State John Kerry - by telling Israel Radio that Israel's reaction to recent 'Palestinian' terror is not excessive.

Shapiro made the statement during an interview Friday on Israel Radio
about indignation by Israeli officials at what they viewed as a
suggestion by a State Department spokesperson that Israel was using
excessive force against Palestinians.

“The United States does not view Israeli actions as excessive,”
Shapiro said. “We recognize the Israeli government’s right and
responsibility to defend its citizens.”

Asked whether the United States considered excessive specifically the
shooting of knife-wielding persons intent on stabbing passersby,
Shapiro said: “We have always supported and continue to support Israel’s
right to defend itself. There is no justification, there is no excuse
whatsoever for these outrageous attacks. They present a difficult
situation to deal with.”

But on Wednesday, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said that
although Israel “has a right and responsibility to protect” its
citizens, “we’ve certainly seen some reports of what many would consider
excessive use of force.”

Shapiro added that the United States “never suggested Israel changed
the status quo” at the Temple Mount — a claim which seems to be fueling
some Palestinian violence toward Israelis in the recent spate of
attacks.

In answer to a reporter’s question, Kirby on Wednesday said that the
status quo on the Temple Mount “has not been observed, which has led to a
lot of the violence.” Shortly thereafter, Kirby walked back that
statement, tweeting: “I did not intend to suggest that status quo at Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif has been broken.”

Here's hoping Shapiro can put some more distance between himself and Kerry.

At the beginning of the Oslo war (on Rosh HaShanna), a 'Palestinian' mob attacked Joseph's
tomb and destroyed it. An IDF soldier, Mahdat Yusuf, bled to death in
that attack. Ehud Barak was
the Prime Minister (and Defense Minister) then and refused to let the IDF go in to rescue the soldiers who were trapped there. Former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz was the Judea and Samaria commander at the time. The tomb was closed for nearly ten years after that incident, and was officially reopened in 2010.

Around 5:00 am on Friday, 'Palestinian' terrorists torched the tomb - now under 'Palestinian' control with access supposedly guaranteed to Jews - once again.

According to available details about the Joseph's Tomb
incident, at around 5 a.m. Friday some 100 Palestinians rioted outside
the compound and at some point began hurling firebombs onto the
premises, setting the main access to the tomb, its courtyard and part of
the building on fire.

Defense officials told Channel 2 News that Palestinian
security forces were able to extinguish the flames and disperse the riot
by the time Israeli forces had arrived.

Rioters pelted the troops with
rocks and threw firebombs at their vehicles. The soldiers use crowd
control measures to disperse the riot.

Security forces have remained on the premises to prevent Palestinian rioters from vandalizing the site further.

Joseph's Tomb is under the Palestinian
security forces' control. Jewish prayer in the compound is allowed, but
worshippers are required to coordinate their visits with the military,
which escorts them in and out of the area.

Jewish access to the compound is often restricted for security reasons.

Following the incident, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner
of the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, tweeted, "IDF will bring perpetrators to
justice, restore the site & ensure that freedom of worship returns
to Joseph's Tomb."

Even UPI's headline said that the tomb had been set on fire by 'Palestinians.' But not CNN's. Their headline reads:Joseph's Tomb site catches fire in spate of Palestinian-Israeli violence. That's right, it just 'caught fire' (was it reaching up to catch it?) spontaneously. And it was in a spate of 'Palestinian'-Israeli violence - note that in the Yisrael HaYom account quoted above, there were no Israelis at the tomb when the 'Palestinians' set it on fire - the IDF arrived later.

Fire broke out at the compound housing Joseph's Tomb overnight, a
religious site venerated by Jews, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Palestinian forces dispersed alleged Palestinian arsonists and put out
the fire.

Unless you get to the second sentence, you might think there was a gas leak or an electrical failure. The initial report is 'fire broke out.' I have to wonder whether the words 'dispersed illegal Palestinian arsonists' were added later because other people saw the report.

CNN lies.

UPDATE 3:49 PM

I meant to add this, which I received by email:

Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council: "As a Jew I must
voice my deep shock over this terrible act. I believe that there's
nobody from the free world who would not see this act as barbaric
and criminal. To set on fire one of the holiest sites of the Jewish
people - A historical asset to the whole world!

"This is the barbarity of the Palestinian Authority and the person
heading it. Another act that proves that we cannot rely on this
'partner'. I call on the Prime Minister to immediately bring back
IDF forces to Joseph's Tomb, because it's clear that if he doesn't,
there will be nobody to guard this inalienable asset for us. Again,
the responsibility belongs to Abu Mazen, the Holocaust denier, and
he has to answer for it.

"Leaders of the enlightened world: Where are your condemnations???
John Kerry, Ban Ki Moon, Mogrini - such a gang of hypocrites! What
would you have done if an important Islamic mosque were burned down?
You should be ashamed of yourselves!!!

"In the face of such Arab barbarity in Shechem and the political
hypocrisy overseas, I call on the Prime Minister to order IDF forces
to return Israeli control to Joseph's Tomb (something that is called
for even in the accursed Oslo accords).

The cat cannot guard the cream! He'll burn it!

Only the IDF can protect this holy site. We must put an end to this
disgrace. This is the only real and correct response - THIS VERY
MORNING is the time!

It's come to this: Russia sets up hotline with Israel over Syrian operations

Russian President Vladimir Putin seems more concerned with clashes with Israel over operations in Syria than with clashes with the 98-pound weakling in Washington. Putin has set up a hotline to coordinate with Israel over Syria.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday that its forces in Syria had
set up a “hotline” with the Israeli military to avoid clashes in the sky
over the war-torn country.

“Mutual information-sharing on the actions of
aircraft has been established through a hotline between the Russian
aviation command center at the Hmeimim air base and a command post of
the Israeli Air Force,” ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov was quoted
as saying by Interfax news agency, adding that the two sides were
undergoing training on how to cooperate.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin
announced his army was going to increase its activity in the Syrian
theater, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Moscow to meet with
him. During the September 21 meeting, Netanyahu and Putin focused on
coordinating Israeli and Russian operations in Syria’s airspace.

“It could come down to Israel and Russia
agreeing to limit themselves to defined areas of operation in Syria, or
even that they fly at daytime and we fly at night,” a former adviser to
Netanyahu told Reuters at the time.

“What’s important is Putin’s commitment not to
get mixed up in arming Hezbollah, which should help Israel, if it goes
in there, to keep a safe distance from the Russians. It is pretty clear
that Putin is not looking for a fight with Israel,” the former adviser
was quoted as saying.

Several days after that meeting, Defense
Minister Moshe Ya’alon referred to understandings reached in the meeting
between Netanyahu and Putin, saying he did not expect the Russian
campaign in Syria to interfere with Israel’s “freedom to act” in Syrian
airspace.

Pretty amazing that the announcement came from the Russians, who apparently felt the need to let everyone know that they won't stand in Israel's way. I guess Putin realizes that Netanyahu still has some red paint.

About Me

I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com